With her portrayal of the Queen and her role as tough-talking Prime Suspect detective Jane Tennison, Dame Helen Mirren has never shied away from controversial roles.

But now the Oscar-winning actress has stepped into a Hollywood minefield playing the lawyer who defended legendary music producer Phil Spector at his murder trial.

Dame Helen, 67, plays attorney Linda Kenney Baden alongside Al Pacino as the impresario, who is now serving life in a Californian jail for shooting dead nightclub hostess Lana Clarkson at his mansion in 2003.

RELATED ARTICLES

Share this article

Dame Helen has tried to cool the controversy by describing the work, written and directed by David Mamet, as ‘a strange amalgamation of imagination and reality’.

The pressure group does claim some
success, however. Dame Helen’s role as the blonde lawyer was to have
been played by Bette Midler, who pulled out after the protests, citing a
bad back.

Killer: Phil Spector with lawyer Linda Kenney Baden in 2007

Phil Spector, a bouffant-haired eccentric with a fondness for wigs and guns is serving time in California's Corcoran State Prison

Spector, 73, a bouffant-haired eccentric with a fondness for wigs and guns, picked up Clarkson at a bar in 2003. At 3am the two of them were driven to his chateau-style home in the Los Angeles hills for a nightcap.